Contrary to popular belief, there is more going on right now at Berkeley than the ASUC elections and the Angry Clam/JonP debates raging like a fresh case of herpes in the Calstuff message boards. A few small gems for those of you interested in other aspects of Cal:

Dailycal.org down

That's right, the Daily Californian website is down. Just goes to show that CalStuff is a more dependable news source.

The UC budget deal

See the previous post. Thanks for the update, Andy.

University Medallist Announced

Ann Chia-Chow, a MCB/Economics double major, is the 2004 University Medal recipient. There has been some controversy over the decision this year, not unexpected due to the caliber of all students nominated. However, there has been a small uproar in isolated groups over Chia-Chow’s selection over Jesse Gabriel, the former ASUC President.

With a cursory glance, one might have reason to question the judgment of the selection board. Gabriel has a 4.0 GPA (higher than his opponents), was president of an organization with a $1.6+ million budget, and has been very involved with many prominent student groups on campus. In fact, some students have raised questions as to whether Gabriel’s strong Zionist stance might have influenced the decision process.

Personally, I think this conclusion is a bit of a stretch. As much credit as I give the political science major, an Econ/MCB program is probably much more difficult, and a few hundredths of a point in this instance isn’t really significant. Gabriel’s activities in extracurricular groups have also not been as strong in his senior year than those of Chia-Chow, whose influence and activities have continued to expand. Finally, Gabriel is not as “squeaky-clean” as Chia-Chow appears to be. His ASUC president term was somewhat lackluster (as many often are… the president’s powers are extremely limited), and there has been growing resentment against him in some of his own groups. The University Medal is generally awarded to blatant over-achievers, and Ann Chia-Chow definitely qualifies. Congrats to her.

Cal Football #1! (or #12, at least)

Cal Football has been getting a lot of hype for the upcoming season. Here’s where some of the top nation-wide preseason polls have us ranked.

SI.com - #15
Athlon Sports - #14
ESPN.com - #12

Looking forward to another great year of sneaking alcohol into the home games. Go Bears!

Finals start Friday

That’s right, it’s already time again. Good luck to all of you who read this that are still attending undergraduate classes.